Senators Want Social Security Overhaul

A leading liberal and a conservative presidential contender agreed Sunday that the nation’s Social Security system will need to be overhauled, especially as aging baby boomers put more pressure on the retirement program.

“It surely will,” said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., appearing on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

In about 15 years, roughly 76 million baby boomers will be tapping the Social Security system for benefits, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, experts say.

Sen. Phil Gramm, the conservative Texan competing for the GOP presidential nomination and who appeared on the same program, agreed.

“Unless we begin to restructure the system to begin to establish a real trust fund that can invest in something other than government bonds (and) unless we begin to let young people invest more of their money in private retirement, Social Security will have been a godsend to my mother and a disaster for my children,” Gramm said.